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Continued from preceding page
One Jewish People By the Year
2000").
At least three of the rabbis' pre-
dicate positions are wrong.
First, the religious parties in Is-
rael certainly have not been con-
tent to live with the existing
fomulation. S. Zalman Abramov
in his book Jewish Religion in the
Jewish State describes in detail
the considerable effort by the reli-
gious patties to make their defini-
tion of "who is a Jew" a part of the
public law of the state. The most
recent effort at change was
prompted by the politics of coali-
tion government and little else.
Second, certainly more was in-
volved than simply a desire on the
part of the religious parties to de-
legitimate non-Orthodox rabbis
in the United States. There is lit-
tle evidence that any particular
thought was given to Diaspora
Jewry in the amendment effort
except to the extent that the in-
crease in aliyah may have inten-
sified concern over identifying
ritually pure converts in the eyes
of Orthodox Jews.
Third, American Jewish lay
leadership did not sit on their
hands during the Knesset debate.
The Executive of the Jewish
Agency made a strong repre-
sentation to the Prime Minister
the divisive effect of a favorable
vote. This action by the Agency
was prompted in part by the ef-
forts of the Council of Jewish Fed-
erations. Only two weeks ago the
Assembly of the Jewish Agency
went on record against any
amendment to the Law of Return.
As described by Rabbi Green-
berg, these are troubled times for
the Jewish people because of de-
mographic changes and lack of so-
cial interaction. Rabbi J. David
Bleich has recently said Orthodox
Judaism is willing to accept
schism rather than enter into
ideological compromise. Rabbi
Alexander M. Schindler has re-
cently been quoted as saying he is
not concerned about divisions
that might result from the split
over lineage standards.
These are disturbing com-
ments. Simplistic and provocative
responses by the non-Orthodox
rabbis combined with the intrans-
igence of many Orthodox rabbis
suggests that if we are to continue
as "one people" and avoid frat-
ricide we may have to find chan-
nels of communications, indepen-
dent of our religious leaders.
Avern Cohn
Who Is A Jew
And Illegitimacy
I would like to address Rabbi
Irving Greenberg's article of July
12. How can there be "one Jewish
people"? Today, there are many
Jews of different cultural back-
grounds, different political views,
and different ideas on who or what
a Jew is.
Judaism will survive only if
there is acceptance of all
halachically-illegitimate chil-
dren and the acceptance of how
and why we were conceived.
Somehow, in all this discussion,
this issue has been conveniently
overlooked. The old adage that it
is just as easy to fall in love with a
Jew as a gentile does not seem
acceptable due to today's mobility
and free society.
I propose that we declare a truce
on this issue and, like Rabbi
Greenberg, start discussions
which will include input from
groups of us that are in this predi-
cament; children, conceived out of
love, with a Jewish father and
non-Jewish mother and yet we
were raised in the Jewish faith.
Of course Jews have strong
family ties. Every culture in the
world does. Jews are not unique.
There are also plenty of bad mar-
riages between Jews, just as there
are in other ethnic groups. Rabbi
Greenberg brings up the fact that
Jews who do not get a Jewish di-
vorce are committing adultery
and later children, of future mar-
riages, will be illegitimate. It ap-
pears there will be a lot of il-
legitimate children running
around by the year 2000. If my
calculations are correct and 60
percent of Jewish boys are marry-
ing non-Jewish girls, there will
soon be very few "pure" Jews left
to worry about who is and who
isn't.
We deserve just as much atten-
tion. We have a right to worship
God as our fathers did. We celeb-
rate all Jewish holidays and
mourn our losses of dear ones in
the same manner. Most of all, we
deserve to be treated with dignity,
not to be labeled halachically-
illegitimate.
Let's be sure the world "il-
legitimae" is never, ever, used to
refer to any child born of a mixed
heritage again. We are not bas-
tard children. We are children
who are honoring one of the com-
mandments — "Honor thy father
and thy mother."
Instead of all this rhetoric, I
suggest that the rabbis of Met-
ropolitan Detroit establish
guidelines that will enable us to
receive acceptance by the Jewish
community. God has accepted us.
I might add, that due to all this
discussion I applied for conversion
last November. I am still waiting
to hear from the Orthodox Council
despite my many phone calls.
While I am waiting, when asked
what religion I am, should I put
down illegitimate Jew?
Flora L. Castleman
Howell
Hits Racism
Jerusalem (JTA) — The Knes-
set passed on first reading last
week two government-sponsored
bills that would curb racism in
politics and public affairs. One of
the bills concerns eligibility for
Knesset representation. The
other makes racial incitement a
specific offense. Racism was not
singled out in the existing general
law against incitement.
Parliamentary and legal ex-
perts said the measures would
prevent Rabbe Meir Kahane's
Kach Party from running in fu-
ture Knesset elections. But it
would also bar the Progressive
List for Peace, a coalition of leftist
Jews and Arab nationalists. Kach
advocates the expulsion of all
Arabs from Israel, by force if
necessary.